ts90four
17-09-2011, 12:10 PM
G'Day guys and gals of the amc,
First thread I've posted, but I've been a member since, oh I dunno, about almost 2 years ago back when I had my ts 2.6L manual, long story short, it got defected and my baby went to the wreckers :( for $100 bucks no less >:( I then disappeared for a while off of amc, but have since gotten a 1997 TE Executive 3.0L manual. I was giving it a much needed clean today after plenty of fast food had been consumed within hahaha, and while I was cleaning I kept looking at my gear stick boot, which was that old the vinyl was essentially separating from the material backing, which just looked horrible. So I thought I may aswell try my hand at making a new one, and if you own a manual and feel you need a new boot, but either A. Autobarn/super cheap/ Sprints etc. don't have the colour you're looking for, or B. You are just a hands on person like me, than feel free to follow the steps I used. The time it took me was about 20 minutes once I got the sewing machine set up, pretty sure you could hand sew it too. Keep in mind, I had already done this before I thought of posting it, so I sort of show everything in reverse, but with the new boot.
Without further adew, let's begin.
Ok so, first thing I did was unscrewed my gear knob, easy enough, may be a bit stiff, but you won't break it. Put it in a safe place :)
Secondly, pop out your gear shift surround/fascia? I guess you could call it that, your console fascia really. I don this in mine by reaching into the little holder just ahead of the console, where the coin holders are (bottom left of picture 1), putting my hand up against the back part and pulling up. Or alternatively, you can take out your console centre (the box part that holds everything) and then push out the fascia from within the console.
Then what you will need to do is lift the boot over your stick (don't poke holes in it!!) and slide the whole fascia back so that the clips disconnect from where the console fascia meets the dash fascia.
Once the whole assembly is free, take any coins out of the cupholder that may still be there (mine had a few) and then flip the whole lot over to discover the 4 screws holding your boot in (Image 2).
Now what you would like to do, is unscrew these screws and chuck 'em somewhere safe, hold onto the plastic surround that the screws held in, and hold onto the old boot once it comes free (feel free to clean around your gear shift surround now that the boot is out, as it can get pretty dirty)
Then what I did was I went to spotlight and bought half a metre of black vinyl (way too much ahahhaa, but just to be safe) set me back 7 bucks, don't go too thick on the vinyl or it may not fit, just take the old boot and have a feel around, get something similar.
Once you have your new vinyl and your old boot back home, cut the small cable tie around the plastic ring on the boot, keep the ring.
Now destitch one segment of your boot (picture 3) and copy this shape onto your vinyl, noting where the stitch line is (this is critical, too tight and you may not be able to relocate the plastic ring)
Cut out your first segment from new vinyl and check it against the original segment, this is your pattern piece, use it to make 3 more identical pieces.
Now the fun part, sew all 4 together so that they are identical to what your original boot was, make sure you sew it together inside out or your stitches will show. when you're done, make sure its inside out, then put the little plastic ring in the throat of the boot, in the same spot it was on the original, or at least close, then whack a cable tie around the boot and the ring as one, same as the original.
Congrats, you got past the hardest part of this build (it's not really that hard is it?) Now fitting it up is just a matter of doing everything in reverse, fit your boot over the plastic surround that you took off the first boot, the black square ring with the 4 screw holes.
Then you want to put that whole assembly into your fascia, make sure your corners of the boot meet the corners of the surround (takes some tweaking, mine was fairly tight)
Once you're done, screw it back together and refit all surround pieces, double check for missing screws, teeth etc. lol and then look at your fine work (picture 4). Hope you guys enjoy, I'll hopefully get some pics of my car up soon, everyone have a great day.
Images:
Image 1 http://s465.photobucket.com/albums/rr13/OzJunky/?action=view¤t=DSCN0291.jpg
Image 2 http://s465.photobucket.com/albums/rr13/OzJunky/?action=view¤t=DSCN0292.jpg
Image 3 http://s465.photobucket.com/albums/rr13/OzJunky/?action=view¤t=DSCN0289.jpg
Image 4 http://s465.photobucket.com/albums/rr13/OzJunky/?action=view¤t=DSCN0290.jpg
TS90FOUR Sam
First thread I've posted, but I've been a member since, oh I dunno, about almost 2 years ago back when I had my ts 2.6L manual, long story short, it got defected and my baby went to the wreckers :( for $100 bucks no less >:( I then disappeared for a while off of amc, but have since gotten a 1997 TE Executive 3.0L manual. I was giving it a much needed clean today after plenty of fast food had been consumed within hahaha, and while I was cleaning I kept looking at my gear stick boot, which was that old the vinyl was essentially separating from the material backing, which just looked horrible. So I thought I may aswell try my hand at making a new one, and if you own a manual and feel you need a new boot, but either A. Autobarn/super cheap/ Sprints etc. don't have the colour you're looking for, or B. You are just a hands on person like me, than feel free to follow the steps I used. The time it took me was about 20 minutes once I got the sewing machine set up, pretty sure you could hand sew it too. Keep in mind, I had already done this before I thought of posting it, so I sort of show everything in reverse, but with the new boot.
Without further adew, let's begin.
Ok so, first thing I did was unscrewed my gear knob, easy enough, may be a bit stiff, but you won't break it. Put it in a safe place :)
Secondly, pop out your gear shift surround/fascia? I guess you could call it that, your console fascia really. I don this in mine by reaching into the little holder just ahead of the console, where the coin holders are (bottom left of picture 1), putting my hand up against the back part and pulling up. Or alternatively, you can take out your console centre (the box part that holds everything) and then push out the fascia from within the console.
Then what you will need to do is lift the boot over your stick (don't poke holes in it!!) and slide the whole fascia back so that the clips disconnect from where the console fascia meets the dash fascia.
Once the whole assembly is free, take any coins out of the cupholder that may still be there (mine had a few) and then flip the whole lot over to discover the 4 screws holding your boot in (Image 2).
Now what you would like to do, is unscrew these screws and chuck 'em somewhere safe, hold onto the plastic surround that the screws held in, and hold onto the old boot once it comes free (feel free to clean around your gear shift surround now that the boot is out, as it can get pretty dirty)
Then what I did was I went to spotlight and bought half a metre of black vinyl (way too much ahahhaa, but just to be safe) set me back 7 bucks, don't go too thick on the vinyl or it may not fit, just take the old boot and have a feel around, get something similar.
Once you have your new vinyl and your old boot back home, cut the small cable tie around the plastic ring on the boot, keep the ring.
Now destitch one segment of your boot (picture 3) and copy this shape onto your vinyl, noting where the stitch line is (this is critical, too tight and you may not be able to relocate the plastic ring)
Cut out your first segment from new vinyl and check it against the original segment, this is your pattern piece, use it to make 3 more identical pieces.
Now the fun part, sew all 4 together so that they are identical to what your original boot was, make sure you sew it together inside out or your stitches will show. when you're done, make sure its inside out, then put the little plastic ring in the throat of the boot, in the same spot it was on the original, or at least close, then whack a cable tie around the boot and the ring as one, same as the original.
Congrats, you got past the hardest part of this build (it's not really that hard is it?) Now fitting it up is just a matter of doing everything in reverse, fit your boot over the plastic surround that you took off the first boot, the black square ring with the 4 screw holes.
Then you want to put that whole assembly into your fascia, make sure your corners of the boot meet the corners of the surround (takes some tweaking, mine was fairly tight)
Once you're done, screw it back together and refit all surround pieces, double check for missing screws, teeth etc. lol and then look at your fine work (picture 4). Hope you guys enjoy, I'll hopefully get some pics of my car up soon, everyone have a great day.
Images:
Image 1 http://s465.photobucket.com/albums/rr13/OzJunky/?action=view¤t=DSCN0291.jpg
Image 2 http://s465.photobucket.com/albums/rr13/OzJunky/?action=view¤t=DSCN0292.jpg
Image 3 http://s465.photobucket.com/albums/rr13/OzJunky/?action=view¤t=DSCN0289.jpg
Image 4 http://s465.photobucket.com/albums/rr13/OzJunky/?action=view¤t=DSCN0290.jpg
TS90FOUR Sam